After working with Graphicast to convert the design, National Optronics has taken what was a four piece pin and screw assembly, down to a single, precision machined casting.

 This project reduced part inventory, assembly time, and made for a much more rigid design.  Oh yeah, they also brought the cost down!

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“Geoff Forester photograph, courtesy of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund”.

Caterpillar recently highlighted how they reduced the cost of a component 20% by working with their supplier from the start of the design step. Graphicast has been pushing this concept for the past several years as we’ve recognized that designs coming to us later in the design process were not able to take advantage of all the features a casting can provide. By getting our customers working with us from the beginning, we can help them optimize their parts for manufacturing while still meeting the design specifications for function and performance. We offer our Design and Rapid Prototyping Service as a means to this end, and it has been very successful, with nearly half of our new customer projects starting out with a design consultation at the beginning of the design phase.

“Geoff Forester photograph, courtesy of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund”.

Graphicast’s Design and Rapid Prototyping Service (DRPS) continues to receive national recognition. The most recent issue of the Design News website features our process as the lead article. Unique to other prototyping processes, Graphicast will produce a prototype in our ZA12 alloy with all the features present on a finished, machined castings. This way, our customers can test an exact copy of their machined casting before we even begin to cut the graphite mold! Prototypes such as these confirm design intent and casting performance to ensure the final design meets all the design criteria. Having the finished part design and machining program in place with the prototype shortens the time to produce the mold and first production runs of the machined casting. Our customers and prospects are discovering the value of this service, as we see more new parts going through this prototyping process first.

“Geoff Forester photograph, courtesy of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund”.

In a recent  survey of design engineers , Product Design and Development magazine found that four major challenges exist in the new product development process:

1. Project management
2. Controlling costs
3. Improving time to market
4. Component selection

National Optronics, a manufacture of eye glass lens grinding equipment ,looks to Graphicast to make value added components for their equipment.  Graphicast often reviews part and assembly prints for their equipment with them to determine if we can achieve cost savings by combining multiple parts into a single casting.  Other savings are found when it is more economical to machine a casting than to machine a component from bar stock.

More than your average win-win situation, this has become a rare and appreciated relationship.  A few years of review, understanding and design collaboration has lead to strong and fluid communications between the organizations.  Today, projects are developed start to finish with relative ease, savings are realized, and at the end of a project, well, speaking for Graphicast, we are happy to have completed another job for National Optronics.

Interzinc, the zinc casting market development organization (www.interzinc.org), made a swing through Texas with seminars in Dallas, Austin and Houston. The seminars received enthusiastic response from attendees who learned how zinc castings can produce lower cost and better performing parts due to the excellent mechanical properties of zinc alloys and the efficient casting processes

Doug Rourke – International Zinc Association